On this page: Orestes – Orestheus – Orestilla – Orfitus

ORESTES.

of secretary to Attila, and was also his ambassador at Constantinople. After the death of Attila, Orestes returned to Italy, where on account of his great wealth, he soon rose to eminence, and obtained the title and rank of patricius. He then married a daughter of Romulus Comes. In 475, while at Rome, he received orders from the emperor JuliusNepos to assemble an army and send it to Gaul, as fears were entertained that the West Gothic king Euric intended another invasion of that country. Being once at the head of an army, Orestes availed himself of his power and riches to make himself master of Italy, and forthwith set out for Ravenna, where Nepos was residing. On his approach Nepos fled in confusion (28th of August, 475) to Salona in Dalmatia, where he met with the deposed emperor Glycerius, his former rival, who was then bishop of that place ; and on the 29th of August Orestes had his son Romulus Augustulus proclaimed emperor, remaining, however, at the head of affairs. His first minister was Parmenus. He sent Latinus and Madusus to Constantinople, that he might be recognised by the emperor Zeno ; aud he made peace with Genseric, the king of the Vandals. The reign of Orestes was of short duration. In the following year (476) Odoacer rose in arms against him, and Orestes having shut himself up in Pavia, was taken prisoner after the town had been stormed by the barbarians, and conducted to Pla- centia where his head was cut off by order of Odoacer. This took place on the 28th of August, 476, exactly a year after he had compelled Nepos to fly from Ravenna. On the 4th of September Patilus, the brother of Orestes, was taken at Ravenna, and likewise put to death. (The au­ thorities quoted in the lives of romulus augus­ tulus, glycerius, juliusnepos, and odo­ acer.) [W. P.]

ORESTES (5Op€<n-7?s), a Christian physician of Tyana in Cappadocia, called also Arestes, who suffered martyrdom during the persecution under Diocletian, A. d. 303, 304. An interesting account of his tortures and death is given by SimeonMeta- phrastes, ap. Surium, De Probot. Sanctor. Histor., vol. vi. p. 231, Avhere he is named Arestes. See also Menolog. Grace, vol. i. p. 178, ed. Urbin. 1727. He has been canonized by the Greek and Roman churches, and his memory is celebrated on Nov. 9. (See Bzovius, Nomenclator Sanctor, Profess. Me- dicor.) [W. A. G.]

ORESTES, CN. AUFI'DIUS, originally be­longed to the Aurelia gens, whence his surname of Orestes, and was adopted by Cn. Aufidius, the historian, when the latter was an old man [See Vol. I. p. 418, b.]. Orestes was repulsed when a candidate for the tribunate of the plebs, but he obtained the consulship in b. c. 71, with P. CorneliusLentulus. From an anecdote recorded by Cicero(deO^.u.17) Orestes seems to have carried his election partly by the magnificent treats he gave the people. (Cic. pro Dom. 13, pro Plane. 21 ; Eutrop. vi. 8.)

2. L. aureliusL. f. L. n. orestes, son of the preceding, was consul b. c. 126, with M. Aemilius Lepidus. He was sent into Sardinia to subdue the inhabitants of the island, who had again risen against the Roman authority, as they had

43

ORFITUS.

done on many previous occasions. Orestes re­mained in his province upwards of three years, and obtained a triumph on his return to Rome in b. c. 122. C. Gracchus was quaestor to Orestes in Sardinia, and distinguished himself greatly by the way in which he there discharged the duties of his office. Mv Aemilius Scaurus also served under Orestes in Sardinia (Liv. Epit. 60 ; Plut. C. Gracch. 1, 2 ; Cic. Brut. 28 ; Aur. Vict. de Vir. III. 72 ; Fasti Capit.) This AureliusOrestes obtains a place, along with his brother C. AureliusOrestes, in the list of orators in the Brutusof Cicero (c. 25), who, however, only says of them, " quos aliquo video in numero oratorum fuisse."

ORESTHEUS(.OpcaQets), a son of Lycaon, and the reputed founder of Oresthasium, which is said afterwards to have been called Oresteium, fromOrestes. (Paus. viii. 3. § 1 ; Eurip. Orest. 1642.)

2. A son of Deucalion, and king of the Ozolian Locrians in Aetolia. His dog is said to have given birth to a piece of wood, which Orestheus con­ cealed in the earth. In the spring a vine grew forth from it, from the sprouts of which he derived the name of his people. (Paus. x. 38. § 1 ; Hecat. ap. Athen. ii. p. 35.) [L. S.]

ORESTILLA, AURE'LIA. [A cjrelia.]

ORESTILLA, LI'VIA, called Cornelia Ores-Una by DionCassius, was the second wife of Caligula, whom he married in A. d. 37. He carried her away on the day of her marriage to Piso, having been invited to the nuptial banquet, but divorced her before two months had elapsed, and banished her and Piso. (Suet. Cat. 25 ; Dion Cass. lix. 8.)

ORFITUS, or ORPHITUS, a cognomen of several gentile names under the empire, does not occur in the time of the republic. Orfitus is the correct orthography, as we see from inscriptions. Many of the Orfiti mentioned below are only known from the Consular Fasti, and from in­scriptions.

1. ser. corneliusorfitus, consul in a. d. 51, with the emperor Claudius (Tac. Ann. xii. 41 ; Plin. H. N. ii. 31 ; and the inscription in Fa-brettus, p. 472). In A. d. 66 Orfitus proposed, in honour of the imperial family, that the month of June should for the future be called Germanicus (Tac. Ann. xvi. 12). It would appear, from an incidental notice in Tacitus(Hist. iv. 42), that Orfitus perished not long after this, by an accu­sation of the informer Aquillius Regulus.